Search results
The earliest evidence of rice cultivation in Mainland Southeast Asia come from the Ban Chiang site in northern Thailand (ca. 2000 to 1500 BC); and the An Sơn site in southern Vietnam (ca. 2000 to 1200 BC). [10] [23] A genomic study indicates that rice diversified into Maritime Southeast Asia between 2,500 and 1,500 years ago. [18]
Rice farming spread far and wide in ancient Southeast Asia, but how it got there has been a mystery. Now, a study of 4000-year-old DNA—a rare find in this region—suggests it came with farmers migrating from China, where rice farming originated. That means the hunter-gatherers already living there didn't learn farming themselves, or from ...
- Overview
- Physical description
- Domestication and cultivation
- Rice processing and uses
The cultivated rice plant grows to about 1.2 meters (4 feet) in height. It is an annual grass. The panicle, or inflorescence (flower cluster), is made of spikelets bearing flowers that produce the fruit or grain. Varieties differ greatly in the length, shape, and weight of the panicle and the overall productivity of a given plant.
What countries are major producers of rice?
More than 90 percent of the world’s rice is grown in Asia, principally in China, India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, with smaller amounts grown in Japan, Pakistan, and various countries of Southeast Asia. Rice is also cultivated in parts of Europe, North and South America, and Australia.
What nutrients are present in rice?
The manner in which rice is processed affects its nutritional profile. Brown rice, where only the husk is removed, contains about 8 percent protein and small amounts of fats; it also has thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, iron, and calcium. White rice, where the husk and bran are removed, is greatly diminished in nutrients. Parboiled white rice retains most of the nutrients, and enriched rice has iron and B vitamins added to it.
How important is rice as a source of food for humans?
The cultivated rice plant is an annual grass and grows to about 1.2 metres (4 feet) in height. The leaves are long and flattened and are borne on hollow stems. The fibrous root system is often broad and spreading. The panicle, or inflorescence (flower cluster), is made up of spikelets bearing flowers that produce the fruit, or grain. Varieties differ greatly in the length, shape, and weight of the panicle and the overall productivity of a given plant.
Britannica Quiz
Ultimate Foodie Quiz
In the 1960s the so-called Green Revolution, an international scientific effort to diminish the threat of world hunger, produced improved strains of numerous food crops, including that known as miracle rice. Bred for disease resistance and increased productivity, this variety is characterized by a short sturdy stalk that minimizes loss from drooping. Poor soil conditions and other factors, however, inhibited its anticipated widespread success.
Many cultures have evidence of early rice cultivation, including China, India, and the civilizations of Southeast Asia. However, the earliest archaeological evidence comes from central and eastern China and dates to 7000–5000 bce. More than 90 percent of the world’s rice is grown in Asia, principally in China, India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, with smaller amounts grown in Japan, Pakistan, and various Southeast Asian nations. Rice is also cultivated in parts of Europe, in North and South America, and in Australia.
With the exception of the type called upland rice, the plant is grown on submerged land in the coastal plains, tidal deltas, and river basins of tropical, semitropical, and temperate regions. The seeds are sown in prepared beds, and when the seedlings are 25 to 50 days old, they are transplanted to a field, or paddy, that has been enclosed by levees and submerged under 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) of water, remaining submerged during the growing season. In hilly areas rice farms are commonly terraced to keep the paddies flooded at various elevations. Successful rice production depends on adequate irrigation, including construction of dams and waterwheels, and on the quality of the soil. Long periods of sunshine are essential. Rice yields vary considerably, ranging from 700 to 4,000 kilograms per hectare (600 to 3,500 pounds per acre). Adequate irrigation, which means inundation of the fields to a depth of several inches during the greater part of the growing season, is a basic requirement for productive land use.
In Asia the paddy is cultivated in three main types of soil, including clays with a firm bottom within a few inches of the surface; silts and soft clays with soft bottoms becoming hard on drying; and peats and “mucks” containing peat, provided the depth of the peat is not excessive. Fields must be drained and dried before harvesting. When combine harvesters or binder threshers are employed, the grain must be dried to about 14 percent moisture so that no deterioration takes place in storage. When reaper binders are used, the crop is “shocked” in certain ways so that the grain is protected from rain.
Special offer for students! Check out our special academic rate and excel this spring semester!
The harvested rice kernel, known as paddy, or rough, rice, is enclosed by the hull, or husk. Milling usually removes both the hull and bran layers of the kernel, and a coating of glucose and talc is sometimes applied to give the kernel a glossy finish. Rice that is processed to remove only the husks, called brown rice, contains about 8 percent protein and small amounts of fats and is a source of thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, iron, and calcium. Rice that is milled to remove the bran as well is called white rice and is greatly diminished in nutrients. When white rice forms a major portion of the diet, there is a risk of beriberi, a disease resulting from a deficiency of thiamine and minerals. Parboiled white rice is specially processed before milling to retain most of the nutrients, and enriched rice has iron and B vitamins added to it.
The milling methods used in most of Asia remain fairly primitive, but large mills operate in Japan and some other areas. Hulling of the paddy is usually accomplished by pestle and mortar worked by hand, foot, or water power. Improvements are slowly taking place. The yield of milled rice is dependent on the size and shape of the grain, the degree of ripeness, and the extent of exposure to the sun. Some large mills, handling 500 to 1,000 tons of paddy daily, have specialized hulling plants with consequent smaller losses from broken grain. They generally employ modern milling techniques and rely on controlled drying plants instead of on sun drying.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mar 21, 2023 · In some cases, such as in Bali, rice cultivation is seen as a sacred duty, and traditional irrigation systems are still used to grow rice. The history of rice in Southeast Asia. Rice cultivation in Southeast Asia dates back at least 5,000 years, with early evidence of rice cultivation found in the Yangtze River valley in China.
Jan 4, 2012 · Growing evidence suggests both that some arboricultural and vegecultural economies were already established in parts of island Southeast Asia, perhaps related to the independent development of cultivation in New Guinea (Donohue and Denham 2010), and that substrate languages in island southeast Asia (which probably included some Austroasiatic taro farmers) were later subsumed by Austronesian ...
- Dorian Q. Fuller
- d.fuller@ucl.ac.uk
- 2011
Rice as a subject of study, analysis, and discussion serves as an essential key to the study of Asia. Culturally diverse, linguistically complex, geographically vast, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and southern, South Asia all share economies, social structures, and belief systems that are in many ways tied to the cultivation of rice.
People also ask
How did rice grow in Southeast Asia?
When did rice become a staple food in Southeast Asia?
Where did rice farming come from?
Where did Asian rice come from?
Why is rice a staple food in Southeast Asia?
Where does rice come from?
May 29, 2017 · They started to grow rice. Remarkably, ... two, maybe even three domestications over time to explain the different varieties of rice in Southeast Asia. The story of rice’s domestication may have ...
